What Might You Find in an Abstract of Title?

In 1984 we bought a house (Lot 104 of Charles R. Cornell's Subdivision, situated at 245 E. Maynard Avenue, Columbus, Ohio) which we sold in 1999 when we bought another house.  All the paperwork for both houses went into a box then into a closet.  It's been there until recently when I began sorting through trying to decide what's necessary to keep and what we can send on it's way (sell, recycle, landfill, thrift store, etc.).

Among the papers for the purchase and sale of the first house was an Abstract of Title.  I'd looked at it earlier to see if I could learn when the house was built but when I couldn't I lost interest.  (I wasn't yet involved in family history.)

An Abstract of Title defines the property in question, details the transfer of ownership of the property, and names the owners/buyers from its first ownership to the date when the abstract was created.  Almost like the genealogy of property.  I think someone who's trying to do a house history would be interested in this.  But an abstract like this may have information other than property owners.  

This packet contains several abstracts, the first beginning in 1800 when the property was purchased from the U.S. Government and others through 1972.  I did not count the number of owners but I did notice that several of them were women.

So what did I find in the papers in this Abstract of Title?  Probably what you'd usually expect.  These, but not all for every sale/purchase.

• Name(s) of owner and buyer
• Size of property (acres, rods, poles, etc.)
• Location of property (metes and bounds in the earliest records) 
• Type of purchase (patent, warranty, quit-claim, mortgage, etc.) 
• Cost of property
  
• Amount of mortgage (if mortgaged)
• Who provided the mortgage
  
• Date of sale/purchase
• Date recorded in county recorder's office, and where
• Who abstracted the information
  

But there were some surprises.

A marriage record Finding an 1885 marriage record is fairly easy these days, but there could be years when marriages weren't recorded or weren't available for one reason or another (fire at a courthouse, etc.).  It would be great to find it in a document like this.

A court case (or several, in this document)

Though the abstract doesn't tell details of the court case, it gives enough information to find the docket at the courthouse.  Also notice the perpendicular handwriting, an early way to save space on paper.

A divorce record

This note narrows the date of a divorce and also gives information about the death of the purchaser's former husband. 

Relationships This entry states a mother/son relationship.  It also narrows the death date of a husband.  Throughout the pages of this document, it often states "husband" or "wife" when a couple bought or sold property.

Maybe you who have spent time viewing property abstracts are already aware of the additional information a record like this can provide, but abstracts are new to me, so I wasn't expecting these surprises.

This Abstract of Title points out to me that documents may include more and various records that go beyond the purpose of the document's original creation.  I would love to find an Abstract of Title for any of my ancestors!

—Nancy.

Copyright © 2024 Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner.